Maybe you are stressing about what’s going to happen at work. Or there is something going on in your relationship that requires immediate attention. Maybe you have been a little vulnerable on the health front and are trying to recover. Maybe you are distracted, struggling to focus here. Whatever the struggle, let’s just take a deep breath and relax.
Countless problems surround our lives. From Buddha to Nietzsche, philosophers have repeatedly asserted that life is suffering. That does not mean we have to suffer endlessly. There are ways to overcome it, to heal ourselves. These solutions may not be expressed as clearly as a mathematical equation, but if you look closely, you’d find them interspersed in religious scriptures, philosophical thoughts, cultural traditions, rituals, societal structures, even in our own psyches.
This is where Nimish Dayalu’s book Caveman’s Secret Sauce helps. It collects ancient Indian wisdom which is scattered all around us and provides answers to many of the problems that are currently eating our minds. The book follows the life of the protagonist, Jeet, who is living in a Himalayan cave, seeking these answers. Below are the excerpts taken from the book. Let’s read it…
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The rains have receded, slowly and gradually and gone back to where they come from — somewhere far, far away.
The earth is damp, bathed in a musky scent; it is letting go of one season and embracing another. Ageing leaves keep falling as the days go by, merging in the same soil they grew out of and then coming back to life again. It’s almost as though they never take birth or die, but simply change forms.
There has not been much to eat in the last few days: no fruits, no nuts, no berries, nothing. I start thinking like my fellow humans — consuming nature, one step at a time, and then waltzing into scarcity. On a brighter note, however, water has been aplenty. Wherever I turn, there is water. It may not taste as rich as it used to during spring and I may not feel as thirsty as I did in the summer, but water is water and it is always full of life. What about food? What do I eat? Like humanity, I am left with no choice but to depend on the next layer of nature. It has been a long time since I last hunted in the forest.
After placing a caveman trap in the forest, I come back and spend the day waiting for it to get over. When you wait, time seems to slow down — and it slows further the more impatient you get. So, it is slowing for me. Is it even moving? I ask myself. Without a watch, it is not easy to tell the flow of time, but perhaps it is only without a watch that you understand its true meaning. That it is a fabric woven into space, through which we travel. This is where time exists, the wisest teacher of them all. What exists in our minds is not time, but routines, schedules and deadlines.
After what seems like ages, finally the evening arrives and I go back to the forest. I walk slowly and carefully. As I approach the spot, I see a poor little thing, with its leg stuck under the rock. Is it a rabbit? Oh, yes. It appears to be in pain as I can hear it squeal. I hurry towards it — it’s ironic that I am concerned about the same creature that I am about to consume. But, we live a life full of contradictions, don’t we? Now, I lift the rock and grab the rabbit. It is still shivering and squealing; the leg has suffered the brunt of the damage. I take one final look at it and think about tonight’s plan. Finally, I have it in my hand — my first substantial meal this week.
As I turn back and start to walk — savouring the roasted rabbit in my head — my foot slips on wet leaves and… while struggling to hold on to a bush, I fall over. Crash! A loud thud in an otherwise quiet forest. The rabbit flies in the air and descends at a quicker pace; here comes another thud! I gasp. My body feels numb, especially my head, which gets dizzy. With a laboured effort, as I try to move, I feel a stinging pain in my foot. ‘Oh no! I hope I haven’t broken it,’ I think, still lying on my chest.
‘Karma, you could have erred once, at least,’ I sigh in pain and fist the ground. ‘It’s not fair.’
What follows next, though, takes me by surprise. The rabbit, somehow managing to crawl, moves towards me and stops next to my face.
Is it time for revenge?
***
Kalampedia 